Thought and Feel

Thought and Feel

Hi, every now and again i’m going to have a guest writer come in and let you know whats going down in his world. Today i’ve got the one like BOOT giving some critical insight into some of the processes he goes through when writing tunes. If you haven’t checked out his tunes yet check them out here, I think you will agree that they are top notch wether he is writing Drum n Bass or Dubstep. Enjoy! – Dauntless

Thought and Feel

One of the major factors that has improved my writing has been learning various producers’ thought approach, or the philosophy to writing.

This has improved my beats far more than any specific advice like “eq here, compress there, use this VST blah blah blah” (Obviously this has helped too, but alot less than you’d think)

Now this may seem like something rather esoteric but it’s a serious factor in production and something that needs to get more attention if you want your beats to stand out.

For example, one of the best pieces advice I’ve been given was from Martijn (Noisia) who said “Make sure your tune can stand up by itself”
By this, he meant that make sure your tune is in itself a complete piece of music, not just a dj tool that works in a set by not on it’s own.
Now this may seem obvious, but it’s staggering the amount of people that don’t approach dance music in this way, and it’s a definite contributing factor to the stagnation of much of it.

Another important aspect is the title of the tune. I normally come up with this close to the start of writing, as this will shape the overall vibe of the piece.
Personally, I find political and social issues inspire me to the point of wanting to write music about it, and the titles of my pieces reflect this (and hopefully the tune does too!).
I used to be inspired alot by science fiction but the problem is it’s exactly the – fiction, I find reality a far more of a muse.
Obviously it’s up to you what you want to write about, but make sure it’s FROM somewhere, something, a thought, a feeling, etc etc.
If you harness this thought/feeling/idea/concept, and not just think about it but live it constantly while you’re writing you’ll milk the most from it and your tune will reflect this.
I guess you could call it “method production.”